Grand jury indicts suspect in serial killings

Feb. 16, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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The arraignment for Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda, center, the prime suspect in the killing of four homeless men in north Orange County on Jan 18. He was indicted for those and two additional killings. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Itzcoatl Ocampo was arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a homeless man in Anaheim Friday. MINDY SCHAUER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Homeless victim #1, James McGillivray, found dead at 140 N. Bradford Avenue in Placentia. THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Jan. 3 - The second stabbing victim was found on the Santa Ana River Trail, near the 91 Freeway; he was identified as Lloyd Middaugh, 42.

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Homeless victim #3, Paulus "Dutch" Smit, found dead at the Yorba Linda Public Library. THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Homeless victim #4, John Berry, found dead on LaPalma Avenue in Anaheim. THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The arraignment for Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda, center, the prime suspect in the killing of four homeless men in north Orange County on Jan 18. He was indicted for those and two additional killings. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – The Yorba Linda man who was called a "monster" by prosecutors when he was accused of the killings of four homeless men during a 25-day span in December and January was indicted by the Orange County grand jury Thursday on six serial murder charges.

Itzcoatl "Izzy" Ocampo, 23, a Marine Iraq war veteran, is charged in the indictment with the unprovoked stabbing deaths of the four homeless men, as well as the stabbing deaths of a Yorba Linda woman and her adult son in an Oct. 25, 2011 attack that was initially blamed on the woman's youngest son.

Ocampo was also charged in the indictment with the special circumstances of committing multiple murders and committing murders by lying-in-wait. Those penalty-enhancing allegations will result in a minimum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted at trial.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office could also seek the death penalty against Ocampo, who was arrested on Jan. 13 as he ran shedding clothes and a large fixed-blade knife from an Anaheim parking lot where the fourth homeless victim was hacked to death. But a decision on the death penalty has yet to be made.

Ocampo was also indicted for sentencing enhancements for personal use of a deadly weapon, a knife, during the commission of a crime.

Ocampo was initially charged with the serial killings of the four transients that began on Dec. 20 in Yorba Linda. But after his arrest, detectives with the Orange County homeless serial killer task force expanded an earlier investigation into the October stabbing deaths of Raquel Estrada, 53, and her oldest son Juan Herrera, 35, in their Yorba Linda home – two slayings that were originally blamed on Estrada's youngest son, Eder Herrera, 24, who was a friend of Ocampo's.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas announced earlier this month that the refocused investigation linked Ocampo to the Estrada/Juan Herrera killings. Ocampo lived about a mile from where the mother and son were stabbed to death, he had been inside their house before as a friend of Eder Herrera's, and the wounds were similar to those inflicted on the four homeless victims. Rackauckas also said that Estrada's and Juan Herrera's DNA were found on an item of clothing in Ocampo's home.

Rackauckas told reporters at a news conference on Feb. 3 the case against Ocampo had taken chilling turns, from killing random, vulnerable homeless men to killing people he knew.

Prosecutors then dropped charges against Eder Herrera that could have resulted in a death sentence and added two counts of murder to Ocampo's complaint.

On Thursday, the grand jury re-affirmed those charges, indicting Ocampo for all six slayings.

The indictment made public Thursday supersedes the criminal complaint against Ocampo and accelerates the case to trial because it eliminates the need for a preliminary hearing to test the evidence. Now, instead of the evidence being vetted by a magistrate to determine if there is sufficient cause to proceed, the case will be quickly assigned to a trial judge.

It also prevents defense attorney Randall Longwith from being able to cross-examine witnesses during a preliminary hearing, which would have been called to order in a courtroom open to the public. Grand Jury proceedings are held in secret session.

Specifically, Ocampo is charged with the murders of:

•James McGillivray, 53, stabbed to death shortly after 8 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2011, behind a commercial complex at 140 N. Bradford Avenue in Placentia. The killer kneeled on the victim's chest and stabbed him more than 40 times in the head, neck, and chest in an attack that was captured on grainy surveillance videos. The attacker, however, was unidentifiable because a sweatshirt hood covered his face,

•Lloyd "Jimmy" Middaugh, 42, who was taking shelter on the Santa Ana River Trail under the 91 Freeway overpass in Anaheim on Dec. 28 when he was stabbed more than 50 times in the head and torso. His body was discovered the following morning.

•Paulus "Dutch" Smit, 57, was stabbed more than 60 times in an alcove of the Yorba Linda Public Library shortly after 3:45 p.m. on Dec. 30. His body was discovered about an hour and 15 minutes later.

•John Barry, 64, was stabbed to death outside a trash enclosure at a Carl's Jr. restaurant on La Palma Avenue in Anaheim by a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt. Several witnesses saw the attack and chased after the assailant. Ocampo was arrested about a quarter mile away after he ran from the crime scene shedding clothes and – allegedly – the knife. At the time of his arrest, Ocampo had blood on his hands and face.

•Raquel Estrada, 53, stabbed to death in the kitchen of her home on Trix Circle in Yorba Linda on Oct. 25. She had been stabbed nearly 40 times.

•Juan Herrera, 35, whose bloodied body was found near his mother's inside the home they shared in Yorba Linda. He had been stabbed more than 60 times, and may have tried to flee from his house during the attack. Detectives theorize that the killer dragged his body back inside the house.

Ocampo is scheduled to return to court to be arraigned on the indictment Tuesday.

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